


take me backwards, turn me around

by Hieiandshino



Category: Avengers: Age of Ultron - Fandom, Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: AU in which Laura is Clint's sister, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Character Death Fix, F/M, Fluffy everywhere, Gen, I Will Go Down With This Ship, M/M, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Twisted and Fluffy Feelings, fluffy for you fluffy for your family fluffy for your cow, other characters too - Freeform, spoilers for Age of Ultron
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-04-29
Updated: 2015-05-05
Packaged: 2018-03-26 06:45:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,673
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3841021
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hieiandshino/pseuds/Hieiandshino
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>(it begins with an arrow that does not reach its target. It begins with Clint Barton being thrown on the ground by a cocky kid with an accent and hair that becomes whiter and whiter. It almost ends before it actually happens, with a lost kid in a floating island, the Quinjet in the hands of another machine and Pietro Maximoff willing to give up his life for Clint and for someone of his village.<br/>It happens again after days near a hospital bed, Clint’s guilt mixed with Wanda’s anger, until the kid wakes up out of nowhere and says the only thing that he has been saying to Clint from the very beginning: “You didn’t see that coming?”. It finally happens after a mission with the new team, in which nothing goes wrong, nothing bad happens, nobody gets hurt. Pietro is smiling and sitting next to Clint on the Quinjet and it makes so much sense to lean in and steal a kiss. But between the beginning, the almost ending, the second chance and the final first act, there were so many touches and comments and pranks and teasing. Flirting. Bed eyes. Innuendos and one memorable moment of Pietro and whipped cream)</p>
<p>OR Pietro and Clint's relationship, starting backwards.</p>
<p>(Unrevised work)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Nobody's grass is as green as mine

**Author's Note:**

> _Avengers: Age of Ultron_ and Marvel (all media types) do not belong to me.
> 
> Title comes from the song "Backwards", by Christina Perri. The name of the chapter also comes from this song.
> 
> This is an unrevised work, so I'm sorry for my mistakes.
> 
> Spoilers for _Avengers: Age of Ultron._
> 
>  
> 
> **This work is an Alternative Universe because it diverges from canon (you'll undertand when you'll watch the movie).**

“I never thought I’d see the day.” Laura says, out of nowhere. She is by his side, with a plate in hands and waiting for her hamburger. Jamie is all over her, surrounding her body with his hands up, trying so hard to get the plate out of his mother’s hands so Clint could serve _him_ so he would look older and more responsible for Maria. It was all too cute and Clint tried to tell Laura to let the kid impress his crush, but was quickly silenced by Laura’s cold glare.

“What’re you talking ‘bout?” Clint asks, focusing on both the meat and the kid way too close to the fire. Laura keeps looking at Clint’s face, showing how much she trusts him to protect his nephew, in case anything goes wrong. Laura looks tired, the bags under her eyes showing Nathaniel was nothing like Nat or Pietro, and that he is incredibly _loud_. Without wanting to, he takes his eyes from both Jamie and the offset smoker to look forward, near the trees, where Pietro is sitting with Helen Cho and Jane Foster, trying his best to be respectful and not look bored. It makes Clint smile a little.

“You and Pietro.” She answers him and Clint looks back at Laura, who is smiling wickedly. He scoffs at her, feeling his cheeks burn, and looks back at the hamburgers he is smoking. “Aw, c’mon Clint. You really thought I wouldn’t _know_?”

He stays silent for a moment, before he puts the hamburger in Laura’s plate, just to get him more time. It pays off beautifully, because soon Jamie is practically _screaming_ for his mother to give him the plate back and asking if Maria is looking and if she is looking he’ll never talk to his mother _ever again_. The glare Laura gives Clint is enough to show that, if she ever had powers, he would be the first one she would kill. Still, they wait until Jamie runs off to Maria Hill with her hamburger ( _she smiles at him and thanks him with a kiss; Rhodey looks so shocked and so sad Clint feels bad for him_ ) before they start talking again.

“Well, _no_. I just thought it’d take some time for it.”

Laura snorts. _Actually snorts_ and covers her mouth with her hands, a little shocked with her burst out. She hates when she snorts and Clint, well, Clint just laughs. She punches him a little, both of them knowing he won’t feel it at all, and they both fall silent. He knows it’s his turn to talk, but he still waits for a moment, flips some hamburgers and wonders if it would be better to ask to Steve to take his place. Clint looks at Steve, talking with Tony and Thor, and knows that it would be a mistake. Those three together would probably be a bad idea near fire. Instead, he catches Sam’s eyes and motions to the offset smoker with his head and Sam gets up, happy to comply. Darcy screams something close to “Wait, don’t go, your face is too pretty to leave me now and all that smoke will make my hair worse!” but Sam only laughs.

“I see you’ve met Darcy.” Clint says when he approaches.

“She’s insane.” Sam says, face serious, but they both know he is just kidding.

“Thanks, man.”

“It’s nothing. I was getting bored anyway.”

Clint turns to Laura, who has a beer waiting for him, and they both walk, a little away from everyone, where Nat and Selvig are paired up in a game of cards, against Nick and Wanda.

“I didn’t expect it.” Clint says, looking at all that green and wondering how in hell nobody ever found this place. How easy it would be to destroy it, with a bomb or with another part of the Earth. Laura is the best, he concludes for the thousandth time, because the risks she takes just by being his _sister_ are too much. He doesn’t know how she can take it so easily. She always was the strongest of them.

“Well.” Laura starts. “I’m not surprised. Nobody was expecting them. Or that you would fall in love with a fast kid.”

“He’s not a _kid_.” Clint comments.

“He’s half your age and he should be on college. Yeah, he is a kid. But it’s okay, Clint. I don’t think you’d find someone of your age to date.” Laura says, patting him on the shoulder. “Everyone your age would be smart enough to not sleep with the most human member of the Avengers.”

“You are horrible.” Clint says, but thinks: _We’re not dating_. He must have thought that pretty loud, because Wanda picks it up and just give him that look that says she is not impressed. Clint shrugs, not knowing what to say. They didn’t define their relationship yet and, well, Wanda doesn’t like him much ever since Pietro caressed Clint’s hand one day during breakfast, before whatever they had even begun. It must be a twin thing. Pietro can’t talk about or with Vision without scolding ( _Vision, who is now with Sam, flipping the hamburgers while Sam teaches him_ ).

“How did that happen exactly?”

“It’s been happing from a while.” Clint confesses. Everyone else knew about that, sure, but Clint has been denying it from a long time. “We just stopped running in circles and decided to go forward together.”

( _it begins with an arrow that does not reach its target, a confused look from a man so used at getting it right in one shot that he is taken aback. It begins with Clint being thrown on the ground by a cocky kid with an accent and hair that becomes whiter and whiter as time passes. It almost ends before it actually happens, with a lost kid in a floating island that would soon become a meteor, the Quinjet in the hands of another machine and Pietro Maximoff willing to give up his life for Clint and for someone of his village._

_It happens again after days circling a hospital bed, Clint’s guilt and sadness mixed with Wanda’s anger and fear, until the kid wakes up out of nowhere and says the only thing that he has been saying to Clint from the very beginning: “You didn’t see that coming?”. It finally happens after a mission with the new team, in which nothing goes wrong, nothing bad happens, nobody gets hurt. Pietro is smiling and sitting next to Clint on the Quinjet and it makes so much sense to just lean in and steal a kiss that Clint does exactly that. But between the beginning, the almost ending, the second chance and the final first act, there were so many touches and comments and pranks and teasing. Flirting. Bed eyes. Innuendos and one memorable moment of Pietro and whipped cream_ )

They reach the house and sit on the porch. From there, they see the Vision and Thor talking by the off-set smoker; Tony stealing a kiss from Pepper while he talks to Maria and Rhodey; Sam and Steve sitting on the table, talking about something everyone already knows what it is; Nat throwing grass at Wanda, who is laughing and whooping, Nick Fury looking at them, smug, what means that they just won of a Russian spy and one of the greatest minds of their times. Selvig, who passes by the kids and sits with Darcy, who is too busy cooing Nate and making funny faces at the kid. Pietro, Helen and Jane are still sitting on the same place, but there is more food around them, which means Pietro probably asked for some time to run ( _and probably didn’t just run to get more food, by the way he is eating so fast_ ).

“God, you are such a _sap_.” Laura says, laughing. “Now I know why Nat didn’t want to date you.”

“We dated, okay? I got the girl, in the end.” Clint says, annoyed. “Sure, I didn’t get the girl _forever_ , but the girl was _there_!”

“Sure, sure. Whatever it makes you feel better at night.” Laura says, hands in the air in surrender. Her eyes turn soft, however, the same way they did many years ago, when Jamie came to this world; the same way they did when they landed on Natasha Romanoff, PTSD and scared eyes at meeting a normal person living in a farm, her belly big with her second child; the same way they did when Clint told her he was going to accept Phil Coulson’s invitation to join S.H.I.E.L.D. and actually be someone ( _that would make her proud, in ways her husband never did. In ways Barney failed, but that part he never needed to say_ ). “But I really hope this keeps happening.”

Clint wants to say that he too hopes that, but only looks at Pietro, answering questions, eating home-made hamburger and being nice to the lady who saved his life and Thor’s girlfriend. Clint looks at Pietro until their eyes meet. It doesn’t take long, because the kid is paranoid enough to do a quick recon every thirty seconds and see where everyone is, just in case he needs to evacuate the farm. Clint would like to tell him nothing bad will ever happen here, but sometimes Clint wakes up in the middle of the night and walks around the perimeter of the farm looking for enemies, bow and arrow in hands. One can never know, not in their line of work.

Thirty seconds pass and Pietro looks up. He is so fast it is almost imperceptible, but Clint is used with this habit of Pietro, just like he is used to the way all his teammates and he are also ready for a fight. Pietro looks from left to right, until he reaches Clint, and when their eyes meet, Clint just winks, making Pietro blush a little and look down for a moment. He looks back at Jane and Helen, answers a question and when they take notes based on his answer, Pietro winks back at Clint.

“Oh my God, you two are so gross.”

“Shut up.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It was supposed to be an oneshot but then I found myself wanting to write all these moments that are in the summary. So I thought "what about I start backwards?" and I fell in love with this idea.
> 
> So, aside from my comics!Clint/Pietro that is 30 chapters long, and my other Clint/Pietro based on comics (but it's an AU), I decided to start this aou!Clint/Pietro and another one, that will take some time to be posted.
> 
> IT'S NOT MY FAULT GUYS. I'M SORRY AND I PROMISE I WILL DEDICATE MYSELF 1000000% ON THIS SHIP.
> 
> PS: If you guys are interested in any ship with Pietro other than Clint/Pietro, please go to "Velocity is speed with a direction", a series of mine in which I am writing Everyone/Pietro. If you wish, you can ask for a pairing and an universe (in any of the stories I have posted or even in here). If you want to throw me some prompts, you can do in any Clint/Pietro fanfic I ever wrote (this one included) or in my [fanfiction blog](http://nightmareduringxmas.tumblr.com/).


	2. Hope the wind takes me around

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _Clint would like for his life to be simple, sometimes.  
>  Or be simple_ someday _, he thinks, as Steve looks at them and says: “Tony is down for a party this weekend.”_  
>  Everyone cheers as Clint groans.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> All the names of chapters, plus the title, come from "Backwards", by Christina Perri.
> 
> Second chapter is up! This one happens a few days _before_ the barbecue at chez Barton.

Clint opens his eyes and sees white. Pietro’s hair is full white now and Clint is surprised he misses the brown on the root of his hair, making it look like it was poorly dyed. Huh. The things you end up missing.

He doesn’t miss, however, the lack of presence of Pietro in his bed. Sprawled body, half-awake half-asleep because of his metabolism, the way his pale back is at display, not even one of the bite marks or love bites Clint left the night before ( _this night?_ ), which is always disappointing, except the high metabolism is comforting when it comes to scars. Clint stays a moment like this, looking at Pietro next to him, and wonders what would have happened if Pietro died. How he would never have this feeling in his chest, or a thousand memories made in less than six months. It is surprisingly sad to think of a world without Pietro and that, _that_ is an important feeling.

“We’re onto something here.” He whispers and sees Pietro stirring awake before he pronounces half of the sentence. Would be afraid if it were anyone else.

“Are we?” Pietro says, rolling so his blue eyes meet with Clint’s. There is a smirk on his face and he does not look like he was just sleeping a minute ago. It is marvelous. “I have not noticed.”

His accent seems to make his sarcasm thicker — his and his sister’s whose tongue seems to have been sharpened on the same blade used by Pietro —, but his eyes are warm and before Clint can remember him of the rule ( _no sarcasm early in the morning_ ), Pietro is already moving to kiss Clint awake, once and for all.

Clint wants to tell Pietro how he makes him unafraid of what is to come. Clint wants to tell Pietro that he knows what is coming. Clint wants to tell Pietro that what is coming for them might already be here — he was never good to catch on with his feelings, and he definitely wasn’t as fast as Pietro —, but refrains himself because he knows it is not necessary.

Clint closes his eyes and rolls on top of his _something_. They have got to sit down and talk about whatever they are, he thinks. _Something_ isn’t going to cut it out forever and it’s getting weird thinking of falling in love for someone who is his _something_.

Pietro tells Clint to fuck him in Sokovian and Clint purses his lips to stops a moan. He’ll talk about this later.

.

Laura is sending more messages than usual.

It’s the stress of having a baby, he remembers, and knows no Barton was ever silent. The fact he has both Pietro and Natasha as inspirations for his name — that he will _dread_ when he is older, the rebellious age added up with the fact his name is based on _two_ superheroes because of his uncle who is not Iron Man, not even Captain America, but the dude with the bow — does nothing to help the genes that came with his last name.

_He is worse than Jamie and Jenna together_ , she writes as Clint eats breakfast. By his side, Natasha is casually ignoring Pietro on his other side and talking about something on youtube with Sam. Pietro has one of his hands on Clint’s knee, tapping what seems to be the song he is listening with Wanda. Why is everyone near him _so awake_?

_When are you coming back? It’s not just the world that needs saving_.

Clint thinks of telling her Pietro and he are together and that he’ll probably spend some of his free time together instead of down at the farm, but Nate is six months old and it doesn’t seem very nice to tell Laura that he is on a relationship with someone of his team by a text message. They always did those things face to face. So he writes: _I’ll come back this weekend_.

Something that was supposed to be a _thank god_ comes in a second later and Clint wonders if one of his nephews got into trouble or if she just fell asleep.

“Good morning.” Steve says and sits on the table, opposite to where Clint is. He briefly looks at Natasha and Pietro and rolls his eyes. Yeah, Clint agrees. They are a work in progress. One day, though, they won’t ignore each other that much. They’ll get along and Clint will not fear coming back to the Avengers QG and find out that his currently — fling, boyfriend, fuck buddy, super young super fast super hot dude he is falling with? They’ve got to update their relationship — _something_ and his best friend have killed each other. It’s a possibility, they have tried before ( _Natasha won_ ).

“Morning Cap.” Clint says. “Do I have something to do this weekend?”

Cap seems to think it for a moment, before he scoffs. “I’m not you secretary.” He says, but continues: “But nothing that I remember.” Sam hides his smile by pretending he is drinking coffee from his mug; Wanda doesn’t even bother.

“Then I’m going to Laura’s.” He says and he really should think of the farm as his home too, but that is a work in progress. “She needs to sleep.”

“Nathaniel Pietro Barton?” Vision’s voice echoes behind Clint and he doesn’t jump. Natasha scoffs the name, Pietro says something in Sokovian that makes Wanda laugh.

“Dude…” Rhodey says behind Vision, one hand grasping his t-shirt right where his heart is. He is covered in sweat and is panting hard. “You can call him Nate, it’s okay.”

Vision looks at Rhodey and after a moment, he nods. “Nate. How is your child doing, Hawkeye?”

Clint gags and Pietro and Wanda start laughing and commenting on it in Sokovian. Man, he’s gotta learn that language. He can only grasp a few things that are close to Russian, but mostly, he is lost. They are making fun of him, though. “He’s not mine, he’s my sister’s. It’s different.”

“Of course.” Vision says. “I’m sorry if I made you uncomfortable. I did not notice that my comment could be read as implying an incestuous relationship between you and Laura.”

“Yeah, Clint.” Nat says, a mock of a frown in her face. “Chill. Everyone knows Laura has better taste.”

Sam chokes on his toast and even Steve laughs at that. They keep eating as Vision sits next to Wanda ( _to Pietro’s dismay_ ) and Rhodey sits next to Sam. Steve absently looks at the empty chair next to him and Clint wonders if he is thinking of Stark, Thor or his missing friend. Perhaps someone else. Sam notices this too and then turns to Clint. “Hey, Clint, how old’s the kid?”

“Almost six months.” He answers, having no idea what kind of distraction that could mean. Natasha’s eyes shine and Clint understands. “We are _not_ going to throw a happy six month anniversary.”

Steve stops looking at the chair and looks back at them. “It can be done?”

Everyone, to Clint’s dismay, says _yes_. Pietro turns to Clint and says: “You can announce the godfather.” The hand on his knee squeezes it and Clint feels a little threatened.

“ _Godmother_.” Natasha tells him sternly and Pietro frowns. Before he can answer her, Wanda casually comments: “Godfathers and godmothers can co-exist in a child’s life without disrupting the harmony of nature, guys.”

“I’m not allowed to make this kind of decision.” Clint remembers, pretty sure he has told this over and over to both Pietro and Nat. “Besides, I chose the name and now he is going to hate me forever, let Laura try to best me on this. She’ll probably choose Stark and Pepper.”

“No.” Cap, Nat, Pietro, Wanda and _Rhodey_ tell him immediately. Clint drinks a little of coffee and wonders when did Stark became so hated.

“He’ll get drunk on power and I’ll be the one who’ll do all the dirty job anyway.” Rhodey reminds them all. “Pepper would be a good godmother, though. After you, Natasha. You’re first on everyone’s list.” Rhodey adds quickly and Nat smiles at him, amused by his fear.

By his side, Pietro mumbles something that does sound like “Not on mine”, but Wanda stabs him with her fork, so Clint won’t scoff him on that.

The conversation stops after that, with everyone eating and checking their phone. Steve seems engrossed on his own, typing a few things and smiling a little. Clint wonders why he doesn’t have a relationship with his own mobile, and then remembers it’s because he always loses his. Or breaks it. Or, in one memorable fight, uses it as a weapon. It didn’t really work, but it caused a good diversion for Nat to sweep in and give him his bow back.

Man, he has the best memories of the worst things _ever_. He should totally write a book.

They are all almost done, with Pietro listening to music a little too loud as he practically eats the whole table, without even noticing he is using his speed — he has moved his hand from Clint’s knee and he kind of misses the warmth — and Wanda and Vision are talking quietly to each other. Clint wonders what Jamie would like to get, what Jenna would like to do and what Laura would like to eat. A part of him also wonders what Pietro would think if Clint invited him to go to the farm for the weekend. They wouldn’t be able to have sex, that much is obvious, but they would get some time alone and maybe have a second date with a baby between them. Maybe they would get to talk about what they are, with just one date and five months of circling each other in their belts.

Clint would like for his life to be simple, sometimes.

Or be simple _someday_ , he thinks, as Steve looks at them and says: “Tony is down for a party this weekend.”

Everyone cheers as Clint groans.

.

“ _Clint, no_.”

“Laura—”

“ _I. Want. To. Sleep._ ” She says, shortly. “ _I don’t want to play hostess. I want you to get your ass in here and take care of the baby you named and sleep._ ”

“You will get some sleep.” Clint tries, because he has to. He can’t just show up with all the Avengers on his tail without Laura’s consent. Everyone injured after a fight while she was pregnant? Sure. Everyone partying while she is a forced into insomnia? Laura will finish Ultron’s objective of killing all of them. “Look, it won’t be that bad and I’ll make everyone else take care of Nate. Besides, it’s just one day, they won’t even sleep there.” He hopes.

Laura is silent for a moment. “ _We don’t have that much food._ ”

“Stark is going to take care of everything.” He hopes for this one too. Pietro does eat for all of them and then some.

“ _They are going to kill each other eventually._ ”

“That is true” He says. “I’m not gonna lie, they probably will, but Helen Cho is coming.” And Darcy Lewis. And Eric Selvig. And also Jane Foster. Maria. Nick. Pepper. Maybe that cute agent that poised as Steve’s neighbor.

“ _The woman who helped Pietro?_ ” Laura asks and Clint confirms. In his head, however, he thinks of her as the woman who _saved_ Pietro. “ _I didn’t meet her yet._ ”

“She’ll bring presents. Something cute and safe. Everyone’s bringing presents and food, you’ll just lend the house. And the baby.”

Laura sighs. “ _I wonder why God didn’t give me easier brothers for me to deal with._ ”

“He must have lots of faith in you.” Clint comments and she just makes a sound he can’t describe and finishes their conversation. He looks at his phone for a moment and then at all the other Avengers, gathered in their living room and says: “It’s on.”

Everyone cheers and Clint wonders how they saved the world _twice_.

.

Hours later, after everyone is calmer after the whole ‘Pary at the Bartons’ hype ( _which shouldn’t be surprising. Everyone is on an edge with this new team and the prospects of aliens invading the world again_ ), Clint finds Pietro sitting on the couch of the living room, together with Sam. They are both quiet and endorsed in their own hobbies: Pietro, reading an absurd amount of books by just flipping the pages ( _not as fast as he could, Clint notices, amused_ ), finishing them in a few seconds or minutes, depending on how interesting the book is or its amount of pages. By his side, Sam is typing something in his computer and Clint wonders if he is looking for Barnes or simply reading news articles. Perhaps both.

“Where’s your sister?” Clint asks as he sits next to Pietro, putting the smaller stash of books ( _the ones he did not read yet_ ) on the coffee table.

“She was training with War Machine last I saw her.” Pietro says, trying to look casual and not caring and failing. “Vision was with her.”

On the other sound of the couch, Sam makes a small sound, between frightened and amused and Clint smiles a little. Pietro pretends he did not hear, but makes a face anyway. “Is there something else I can help you with, Barton?”

_Barton_. Clint tries to control his expression, but he just can’t. Barton is for missions and training. Barton is for when Pietro is in a mood. Barton is for when Clint does something Pietro doesn’t like or approve of. Barton is for when Clint criticizes him or when it comes to Wanda and Vision. It’s frustrating and cute at the same time; makes Clint wonder why the hell he is with this guy and why the hell he took so long to be with him. Opposite sensations and feelings and Clint guesses this is what made Morse fall so hard for that mercenary husband of hers.

“Yeah, you can.” Clint says. “I’d like to invite you to come with me to my nephew’s six month anniversary.” Even though Nate isn’t six months yet and the party is not even close to the day he was born. Whatever, Clint will buy their excuses for a party and some downtime somewhere no one will look at them differently. Everyone needs a break.

Sam stops typing for a moment, a sign that he is listening to them, and then keeps doing whatever he was doing before. Pietro closes the book he was reading a second ago, without caring that he was in the middle of it, and looks at Clint with this confused look in his face. “You do realize I was there when everyone invited themselves to your house, do you not?” Before Clint can respond, he turns to Sam, that sarcastic tone back in his voice: “Please, do google the common age for male americans to become senile.”

Sam laughs. “Don’t put me in this, man. Seriously, I’m just here, typing some stuff, minding my own business. But you have to take into consideration your man here did get banged in the have way too many times.”

“Yes, very funny.” Clint says, cutting their talk before they start mocking him for good. He then turns to Pietro again, who is smirking but is interested on whatever Clint is trying to say, so it’s still a good thing. Clint tries to get back on his serious face and tone. “I’m asking you to come with me to this party. Because—” He says, before Pietro can interrupt. “—I’m not going with you guys. When you get there, I’ll be already there. And I want you to be there with me.”

The first person who answers him is Sam. “What? Man, that is it? Couldn’t you just have asked him to go with you to the farm, is that hard?”

Pietro snorts and Clint rolls his eyes. “I was trying to invite him in a way more creative way.”

“Dude, don’t. You failed.” Sam says and then shuts up because of the glare Clint sends his way. He closes his computer and leaves the living room, arguing about how some people can’t deal with constructive criticism when it comes to dates, but he’s smiling.

When they are finally alone, Clint turns back to Pietro, who is holding a book and reading its summary. “That sounds boring.” Pietro says. “What would we do on a farm, all by ourselves?” He feigns innocence and Clint laughs a little.

“Not _that_.” He answers. “We can take care of the children so Laura can sleep and not have a mental breakdown. We can to watch lots of TV and read books.” Well, _Pietro_ will read books; Clint will destroy stuff. “We can go on a second date and talk.”

This picks Pietro’s attention. “Talk?” He says, tone light, but there is something on the way he looks at Clint that makes him know he is being serious. “I wouldn’t want to make you uncomfortable.”

“Yeah? Maybe I want to be uncomfortable. Sounds good when you say it.” Clint whispers, leaning in to kiss Pietro. His fingers brush Pietro’s chin and they graze softly on the still brown hair of his soon-to-be beard. It is so easy and so difficult at the same time, and Clint wonders if this is how love was also meant to be. Hard on the edges and soft in the middle, a thousand words in a thousand languages but only one course of action. The release of the arrow and the bullseye. A lick and a bite.

“Dorks!” Maria Hill says, coming out of nowhere, and they both jump. She laughs loudly and doesn’t even bother to hide.

By his side, Pietro mumbles something in Sokovian that sounds like a threat, but when Clint looks back at him, he smiles wickedly. “When can we go?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Nothing important happens in this chapter, mostly because it is here for me to train and get used at writing a story backwards. I did not think this through at all. I guess most people who do that, you know, write from beginning to end on a chronological order, but I like a good challenge.
> 
> The downside is, it's a difficult way to develop character, from end of a story to its beginning. Because of that I did a small plan on how things will go and decided to write from the beginning too, since I know how it ends and now I know how it begins. This way, I will finish this story faster and will also be able to control the development of the characters without needing to warn you guys a few things changed (nothing changed, don't worry).
> 
> Cortazar, I admire you so much, now.
> 
> [Requests open](http://nightmareduringxmas.tumblr.com/).
> 
> PS: the talk they will have still hasn't happened on this story. It happens only after the party, because nothing that Pietro or Clint actually plan works. As usual.


End file.
